Does A Christian Sin If They Do Not Witness For God?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28: 19-20 ESV

What are some very important things in terms of the Christian life...Prayer? the study of the God's Word? fellowship with the family of God?

These are all important and should not be missed, but what about witnessing to those who are outside the family of God?

Specifically, we need to talk about the direct approach of communicating the saving gospel of Jesus Christ to other people.

Christians are commanded to be witnesses for God. So what does that mean?

1. Who Does The Bible Define as Witnesses?

In John 15:26, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is in the business of witnessing. The Holy Spirit has come to testify of the truth concerning Christ.

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.” — John 15:26-27 ESV

And then in the next verse 27 we are to also bear witness.

The Holy Spirit then was sent into the world and into our hearts to bear witness to Christ, and he therefore bears witness through us.

We who have been with Christ are witnesses firsthand to who he is and what he can do in a life, and the ministry of witnessing is committed to us.

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” — Acts 1:8 ESV

So we’re all called then to communicate the saving gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. What Does The Bible Actually Define Witnessing As?

Witnessing would be defined as this: A person communicating testimony about something they have experienced.

Here's a great analogy from John MacArthur "The world is like the jury. Christ is on trial before the world. The world is trying to decide about Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the lawyer for the defense. The Holy Spirit has taken up Christ’s case in the world. And his task is to convince the world that Christ is who he says he is, and the Holy Spirit calls into the courtroom witnesses. That’s us, see."

"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" — 1 Peter 3:15 ESV

When you approach this responsibility of standing before the world to testify for the sake of Jesus Christ you’ve got to realize that it’s a hostile world. And if the gospel is truly preached, they’re going to react.

If you just talk about love and nice things and talk about God as a good guy and don’t bring in sin and don’t confront people with the fact that they live in violation of God, they may not react negatively. But that isn’t the true gospel either, is it?

You’ve got to confront the truth of sin and righteousness and the truth about Jesus Christ. And when you do that, there’s a sacrifice to be made.

When the Bible speaks of us as witnesses, the greek word "μάρτυς" is used and means "one who dies for his faith" (a martyr) because that was commonly the price of witnessing.

"For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard." — Acts 22:15 ESV
"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. — John 15:18-20 ESV

3. Why Witness When God Promises To Bring Men To Himself Anyway?

Our Lord says, as we mentioned earlier in Matthew 28, “Go into all the world and make disciples.” That is a command, not a suggestion.

Jesus also said:

"Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." — Matthew 10:32-33 ESV

I believe we’re commanded to go out there right now and do it, and we’re responsible to do it because it isn’t a matter of theological knowledge. In other words, I think we all are responsible. Somebody could say, “Well, I mean I’m not trained. I can’t witness. I’ve got to wait until I get my training. I’ve got to be built up so that I can answer all these arguments and all these questions and so forth.” But I think we are all witnesses because we’re command to be and because it isn’t a matter of theological knowledge. It is first and foremost a matter of what we’ve seen and heard and felt, and our witness begins at that point. And I may know very little, right? I may only know that Jesus saved me, but that’s enough.

John MacArthur - Pastor of Grace Community Church

We Are Not Supposed to Be Secret Service Christians

My Sunday school teacher often says that the reason we weren't raptured to Heaven the day we got saved was because God wants us to share our testimony and be a witness to the lost.

Thank you, our Father, for the great privilege of being ambassadors for Jesus Christ and being given the task of calling men to him, giving testimony to him. Father, we can’t understand why you would want to have us be your witnesses, who are so frail and failing, and yet we know that by the power of the Spirit of God you can use us. We thank you for that privilege. For the glory of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.